Greed Will Make You Poor

This article focuses on the problem of greed. According to the above verse, greedy people will try to get rich as fast as they can. In doing so, they ended up poorer instead. This tells us that we can never get rich by being greedy. Greed will only make us poor, not rich. In other words, if you want to be poor, be greedy. If you want to be rich, don’t be greedy.

What is greed in the first place? As I have mentioned in my previous articles before, greed is caused by a mentality of scarcity. In the mind of a greedy man, the world is constantly in lack of resources. (This reminds me of the economic class when I was in the university. If I can remember correctly, the principles of economy are based on the lack of resources.) A man who has a mentality of scarcity and wants to get rich will exhibit the characteristics of greed. He believes in the necessity of sacrifice in his quest for riches. He may sacrifice his health, marriage, family, integrity, compassion and other things that he used to value if he thinks it can help him to be richer. Unfortunately, Proverbs 28:22 tells us that such a person may end up poorer.

The greatest weakness of a greedy person is vulnerability to deception by con artists. Let me give you some examples.

If you have an email address, there is a high likelihood that you would have received emails that promised you a lot of money if you are willing to help the sender to transfer a huge sum of money. I have received a lot of them myself. When I read the contents of these mails, I feel like laughing. Who could be so dumb to fall for that? Yet, the truth is, there were people who fell for that. They responded to the mail and indicated their interest in participating in the schemes of the senders. The senders in turn asked for more details and even money for the transaction. One day, the victims realize that the money promised to them never came and they have lost a huge sum of money instead.

How could this happen? Those guys preyed on the greed of the public. People who are blinded by greed cannot think rationally. As a result they became victims of swindlers and ended up poorer.

There are also other forms like pyramid schemes and dubious investments. The operators of these schemes can only appeal to one weakness, greed. Once they can get you to be blinded by greed, you will be at their mercy. Your money is as good as theirs. You will be poorer instead of richer. However, as long as you have mentality of abundance, greed will have no place in your mind. You will not fall for these schemes.

Therefore, it is dangerous for your wealth if you have the mentality of scarcity and want to be rich. You will become greedy and want to get rich quick. Instead of riches, poverty will come on you instead. What is the solution then? Does this means we must not want to be rich?

Let me make this clear. God wants us to be rich. In fact, he sent Jesus to die poor at the Cross, for us to live rich. We can never glorify and honor God if we have no desire to be rich. However, we should not have the desire to be rich and a mentality of scarcity at the same time. Such combination will result in greed.

When we have the desire to be rich, we are glorifying God but at the same time we must build up a mentality of abundance. How do we do that? We need to spend time with God because he has the mentality of abundance. If you read the Bible, you can see that God has always been abundance minded. By reading the Bible, listening to faith message and praying, we are effectively becoming more and more abundance minded. Consequently, we are on our way for great prosperity to come into our lives.